246 Nichols and Harper, Long Island Shore Birds. ViuXy 



along our shores than a band of Oxeyes trotting down the slope of the 

 beach in the wake of each retreating wave, turning just in time to avoid the 

 wash from a new breaker, and keeping barely in advance of its foamy front 

 as they run back over the sands. Sometimes they linger a little too long 

 for some morsel, and the water surges about their legs, forcing them into 

 flight. The members of a flock do not separate widely when feeding, and 

 upon taking wing, they close ranks and move in a compact body. If not 

 disturbed, they fly steadily, but if they become alarmed from some cause, 

 such as a gunshot, they dart from side to side in an erratic course. 



The Gilgo Flats, on the inner side of the beach opposite Amityville, 

 are an especially favorable place for observing Semipalmated Sandpipers 

 in large numbers. The flocks start at dawn in search of food, and continue 

 to move about actively for two or three hours. But by eight o'clock on a 

 midsummer morning the birds have temporarily satisfied their hunger, and 

 begin to collect in dense bunches on the inner and drier parts of the flats. 

 Here they rest quietly and doze away with heads tucked in the feathers of 

 their backs. In the space of a few rods as many as three hundred birds 

 may congregate in numerous small and compact groups. At a distance 

 these groups remind one of exposed beds of mussels; or if, at one's approach, 

 some of the bii'ds keep raising and lowering their wings, undecided whether 

 to fly or not, they even suggest a cluster of butterflies on the sand. 



Most Semipalmated Sandpipers are very confiding, though some indi- 

 viduals, which doubtless have been much persecuted, exhibit surprising 

 wildness. The members of this species come to stool in greater numbers, 

 probably, than any of the other Long Island shore birds, and many of 

 them pay dearly for their gentleness and sociability, since gunners very 

 frequently turn their weapons upon the little Oxeyes for want of bigger 

 game. Birds with a crippled wing or a dangling leg, or with only one leg, 

 are no uncommon sight, and at times the proportion of cripples to able- 

 bodied bii'ds is sadly large. 



One of us in the Northwest has observed a Semipalmated Sandpiper 

 crouching on its tarsi when alarmed, exactly in the manner of the Pectoral, 

 White-rumped, and Least Sandpipers, but we have never noticed this 

 habit in the present species on Long Island. 



The ordinaiy note of this bird is a quick, monosyllabic ch-r-r-uk, some- 

 times shortened to a mere kuk or kip. A most pleasant little whinnying 

 call, eh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh, is uttered in a contented, sociable tone by 

 a bird either on the ground or on the wing, and is a common sound in mi- 

 gi-ation time on the marshes and tidal flats. Variable as the notes of this 

 species are, they are always distinguished by the absence of the ee sound 

 which is characteristic of the Least Sandpiper's common note. 



Each species so resembles the other, both in habits and in appearance, 

 that it is by no means easy to distinguish them in the field except under 

 favorable conditions. The points of difference are really numerous, but 

 all of them are slight. The Semipalmated is a little larger, its general 

 coloration is lighter, its breast less heavily streaked, its back less rusty in 



